KNBR’s Damon Bruce: The Story of My Favorite T-shirt

I’m a Damon Bruce fan. I make excuses to schedule work-related travel from noon to 3 p.m., so I can listen to his show on KNBR 1050. His best quality is versatility. He can muster outrage when necessary, has a nice grasp of pop culture and he does pro bono work — I’ve heard him devote an entire hour on things like safety in high school sports.

He’s also one of a handful of local personalities who I could count on to carry a 10 minute conversation about his favorite T-shirt. So when I started The Story of My Favorite T-Shirt contest, he was my first call. Bruce, a proud Indiana University grad, has been wearing the same shirt (off and on, mostly on) for two decades.

More on that below. Look at the end of the interview for instructions how to enter your favorite T-shirt.

I spoke with Damon Bruce by phone on Monday …

Q: Where did you buy the shirt? Was there a holy light coming from it?

A: I bought that T-shirt from the student union, if not my first day on campus, my second day on campus. I wore it to almost every single football game I went to … and I definitely wore it to every single basketball game I ever went to in Assembly Hall. That is my go-to shirt, and it still is to this day. If Indiana is playing, my chances of wearing that shirt is about 100 percent.

I bought the shirt in 1993 or 1994. I graduated in ’97. That T-shirt is almost 20 years old now.

Q: Indiana has fielded some bad teams, especially in football. Do you consider the shirt good luck or bad luck?

A: That T-shirt has seen an awful lot of losing. The T-shirt is battle-tested. I’m not going to brag about its winning percentage, because Indiana has fallen on tough times. But that shirt has got experience. That shirt knows how to take a big beer being spilled down the back of it and still go on. The shirt has seen it all.

Q: Why not just buy another one?

A: I don’t even know if it was tradition-based, or habit based or I-hate-doing-laundry based. It kept on being my Indiana shirt. It has such black pit stains in it now. It’s been suggested “Retire that shirt. You don’t have to throw it out! You can frame it even if you want to, but it’s time for a new T-shirt.”

My argument has always been that the T-shirt deserves a title. It hasn’t gotten one yet. And I will be wearing this T-shirt the night Indiana wins a title.

Q: Do your loved one try to buy you new shirts?

A: My mother tried to throw it out on me once, and it was one of the bigger fights we’d ever had about clothing. … I’ve heard stuff from my current girlfriend. It was during this last NCAA tournament, and I’m in Monaghan’s in the Marina every night, wearing that T-shirt, with the big black pit stains. I’m wearing my Indiana candy striped warm-up pants, and everyone’s like “You look ridiculous.” And I say “I don’t care. This is bigger than you. It’s bigger than me. It’s bigger than all of us.”

I’m just a small cog in my T-shirt’s grand scheme. It has a life of its own. … I can’t foresee a day where that T-shirt is discarded. I’ll never put it down. That T-shirt will be in a drawer, in a box, before it’s ever going to be in a dumpster.

Q: Where do you keep it?

A: It’s usually folded up in one of my dresser drawers, ready to go.

Q: So you take good care of it.

A: I have now taken to washing it, turning it inside out, so there won’t be any more fraying of the Indiana logo across the chest. That’s officially more care than I put in that garment than I put into any other garment I own.

Q: Did you have a different favorite T-shirt before this one?

A: When I was a kid, I had an Optimus Prime Transformers T-shirt that my mom did have to throw away without my knowledge one day. And I do remember flipping out that my Optimus Prime T-shirt was not coming back. That hurt. Maybe that’s why, because of that scarring, that I hold onto this T-shirt so dearly. I don’t want this T-shirt to get Optimus Primed by a woman, who doesn’t understand the value of a man’s beloved T-shirt.

Q: How well traveled is the shirt? I know you go on the road for games — how many states has it seen?

A: It’s been to West Lafayette. It’s been to Champaign, Illinois. It’s been to Columbus, Ohio. It’s been to Ann Arbor, Michigan. It goes to Las Vegas every year. I was wearing it in an NCAA tournament game in Sacramento, when the Hoosiers knocked off Gonzaga and then lost to UCLA a couple of years ago.

The T-shirt will be with me in Atlanta, this year, in the Final Four. I said it. We’ll be there.

Q: If there’s a fire, what are you grabbing first? Pets? Hard drives? This T-shirt?

A: If this takes place during basketball season, the chances are I’m wearing it, and it’s not going to be an issue. It’s coming out of the building with me. If it happens during the Indiana game, we only need to pick up the cat, and I haven’t even decided which one, because I’ve got two cats, and I’ve only got two hands and I’m taking the f—ing TV with me, too.

I’m pretty ambivalent to every single article clothing that I have, with the exception of this, and my Andre Dawson jersey. I could see a scenario where I’m buried in this shirt some day. Maybe I’m not wearing it in the casket, but it’s down by my feet.

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Thanks DBruce! Excellent interview. Follow Damon on Twitter @DamonBruce or listen to his show from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays on KNBR 1050.

I’m still taking entries for The Story of My Favorite T-shirt. The rules are below:

1. Send a photo of your favorite T-shirt to phartlaub@sfchronicle.com by this Sunday at noon.

2. Let me know in 100 words or less what it means to you. Have fun with this part. Let us know where you got it, why it’s important to you, etc.

3. Send a photo (please just send one), and keep the file 1 MB or less.Horizontal or square photos are preferred over vertical. You can send a photo of yourself, or just of the shirt.

All T-shirts old and new are eligible. I’ll post the 30 best ones Tuesday on The Big Event. There will be a prize for the winner, which will be announced in the July 12 edition of The San Francisco Chronicle’s Datebook section.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder/editor of The Big Event. He takes requests. Contact him at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. Follow him on Twitter @peterhartlaub. Follow The Big Event on Facebook.